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The World
Heatwaves: world reels from wildfires, floods as US and China discuss climate crisis. Asia, Europe and the United States baked under extreme heat on Monday as global temperatures soared toward alarming highs and U.S. leaders sought to reignite climate diplomacy with China. The United States was scorched by record-setting heat in the West and South, lashed with flood-triggering rain in the Northeast, and choked by wildfire smoke in the Midwest. A heat dome parked over the western United States pushed the temperature in California's Death Valley desert to 128 Fahrenheit (53 Celsius) on Sunday, among the highest temperatures recorded on Earth in the past 90 years. Phoenix hit 114F (45.5C) on Monday, matching a historic record of 18 straight days over 110F with the forecast showing the record likely to extend for at least another week. A remote town in China's arid northwest, Sanbao, registered a national record of 52.2C (126F). Wildfires in Europe raged ahead of a second heat wave in two weeks that was set to send temperatures as high as 48C (118F), while authorities in Italy and France issued heat-related health warnings. (Reuters)
Another massive plume of smoke from Canada fires fouls air in Lower 48: Washington ranked among the most polluted cities on Earth on Monday afternoon, with smoke predicted to blanket the East Coast through Tuesday. (Washington Post)
Russia has formally withdrawn from a UN-brokered deal to export Ukrainian grain across the Black Sea, potentially imperilling tens of millions of tonnes of food exports around the world. President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters on Monday that the agreement had “essentially stopped” and Russia would no longer co-operate with the deal. Russia has complained since the UN and Turkey first brokered the deal a year ago that western sanctions were holding up a parallel agreement to allow payments, insurance and shipping for Moscow’s own agricultural exports. (Financial Times)
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said a new nuclear consultative group between South Korea and the U.S. would be a "starting point" to build a strong and effective deterrence against North Korea. Officials from the United States and South Korea are meeting on Tuesday in Seoul for the first Nuclear Consultative Group discussion, aimed at better coordinating allied nuclear response in the event of a war with North Korea. (Reuters)
President Biden invited Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to a meeting in the United States for the first time since Mr. Netanyahu re-entered office in December, easing months of tensions about the direction of Israel’s government. Mr. Netanyahu’s office said that Mr. Biden made the invitation in a “warm and long” phone call on Monday evening, on the eve of a visit to Washington by Isaac Herzog, the Israeli president. Until Monday, that visit had been widely seen as a slight to Mr. Netanyahu. The invitation to the prime minister reversed Mr. Biden’s decision in March to avoid meeting Mr. Netanyahu “in the near term.” But White House officials said the prospect of a face-to-face meeting should not be interpreted as Mr. Biden’s abandoning his objections to some of the Israeli leader’s hard-line positions. (New York Times)
Dementia experts have hailed the latest landmark in the treatment of Alzheimer’s after Eli Lilly released trial results that showed its new drug significantly slowed memory loss and cognitive decline. The US pharmaceuticals group reported full findings of its phase 3 clinical study of donanemab at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Amsterdam, showing that the antibody treatment slowed progression by about 35 per cent in the early stages of the disease. Eli Lilly announced on Monday that it had submitted donanemab for FDA approval and expected a decision before the end of this year. (Financial Times)
Global hunger enters a grim ‘new normal’: While the fact that there wasn’t a major increase in global hunger between 2021 and 2022 could be viewed as a positive sign, there are a lot more negative trends to be gleaned from the United Nations’ annual flagship report on global food security, which was released last week. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimated that between 691 million and 783 million people faced hunger last year. The midrange of that calculation, about 735 million, is 122 million more people going hungry than in 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic shook the world. This year’s report — “The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2023” — also found that nearly 30 percent of humanity, or roughly 2.4 billion people, lacked access to adequate food in 2022, while an even greater number — 3.1 billion people — were unable to afford a healthy diet. It projected that by the end of the decade, despite significant poverty alleviation initiatives, some 600 million people will still be chronically undernourished, a blow to U.N.-outlined goals of eliminating hunger by 2030. (Washington Post)
Economy
Americans are increasingly likely to get turned down when they apply for credit, according to a new Federal Reserve survey that shows the combined impact of high interest rates and a cautious turn among the country’s lenders. The rejection rate for loan applicants jumped to 21.8% in the 12 months through June, the highest level in five years, according to the latest edition of the Fed survey, which is published every four months. Overall credit applications declined to the lowest level since October 2020. (Bloomberg)
US bank regulators are set to release their plans next week for a sweeping overhaul of capital rules, with the latest draft including requirements for large lenders’ residential mortgages that go beyond international standards. The changes would be part of the US version of a global accord known as Basel III that followed the financial crisis. The plans are poised to be unveiled July 27 by the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, according to three people familiar with the proposal who asked not to be identified discussing details before the announcement. (Bloomberg)
China's existing-home prices back in free fall as sellers rush in: Prices for existing homes in China are tumbling even in major cities as an influx of sellers and a dearth of buyers undermine the once-unquestioned assumption that the market would only keep growing. (Nikkei Asia Review)
China’s grain harvest sees first summer drop in 5 years, autumn dip may follow. (South China Morning Post)
Hong Kong stocks tumble 2% dragged by property and tech. (CNBC)
Worst American City for Pensions Confronts a $35 Billion Crisis: Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson sets out to find a “sustainable” pension funding without hiking property taxes. The situation makes for a cautionary tale for municipalities across the country facing long-neglected contributions and funding shortfalls. Already, the third-largest US city spends roughly $1 of every $5 on pensions, while more than 80% of property-tax dollars go toward retirement payouts. (Bloomberg)
Technology
Ford slashed prices on its electric F-150 Lightning pickup truck by up to nearly 17%, the latest sign that swelling inventories and fierce price competition are softening the market for the technology the auto industry is betting its future on. Ford Motor that the reductions, which effectively dropped the Lightning’s starting price by almost $10,000 to $49,995, were the result of lower material costs and the company having more factory output. Some versions will get a steeper price cut than others. (Wall Street Journal)
Sales of electric vehicles in the US are accelerating: US electric vehicle sales are gathering pace, hitting the 4mn mark at the end of June, according to data and analysis from consultancy Atlas Public Policy. The sales are being driven by a combination of price cuts at Tesla and Ford this year, tax credits worth up to $7,500 for consumers and greater manufacturing capacity, experts say. It took nearly eight years to sell the first 1mn battery-powered cars, trucks and vans in the US, a milestone hit in 2018. The 2mn mark took roughly 32 months, and the third million took approximately 15 months. The accelerating pace brought the 4 millionth sale after just 10 months. (Financial Times)
Microsoft-Activision Deal Poised to Close Later Than Planned: Microsoft and Activision are nearing the finish line on their $69 billion deal, but aren’t likely to close it by a Tuesday deadline. The companies don’t plan to walk away from the deal and will continue seeking the final regulatory approvals needed for closing, said the people, who declined to be named because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. (Bloomberg)
Peacock Becomes Latest Streaming Service to Raise Prices: NBCUniversal said its ad-supported plan will increase $1 a month, while the ad-free tier will go up $2 to $11.99 a month. (Wall Street Journal)
Adam Mosseri says spam attacks on Threads “have picked up” so Meta is tightening “things like rate limits” and warns of “unintentionally limiting active people”. (TechCrunch)
AT&T shares hit three-decade low as lead cables risk weighs. (Reuters)
Smart Links
India’s reliance on Russian oil may be ‘approaching a limit’. (CNBC)
US Plans Narrow Limits on China Tech Investments, Likely by 2024. (Bloomberg)
Global childhood vaccinations edge closer to pre-pandemic levels: WHO report. (STAT News)
Big LNG buyers and producers to tighten methane monitoring. (Financial Times)
Typo leaks millions of US military emails to Mali web operator. (Financial Times)
Wix’s new tool can create entire websites from AI prompts. (TechCrunch)